


Memory Lane

by Deniera



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Yakuza, Animosity, Background story, Early Relationship, Ignis is a badass, Injury, M/M, Minor Character Death, Noctis is a brat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-29 19:31:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10142354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deniera/pseuds/Deniera
Summary: Ignis Scientia has spent almost his whole life killing in the name of the Caelum family. Calculating, tactical, he’s called ルシスの狼, the Wolf of Lucius, the man who can never be tamed. Except by warm-hearted, young Noctis, of course. This is the story how they first meet and how Ignis becomes his man-for-everything.Yakuza AU, based on ideas I didn't come up with alone. I was just thinking about a background story to go with the things Achrya, Lhugi, Whumpbby and I 'discussed' on Tumblr.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Achrya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/gifts), [Lhugy_for_short](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lhugy_for_short/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Death Fears Not the Reaper](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10140815) by [Lhugy_for_short](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lhugy_for_short/pseuds/Lhugy_for_short). 
  * Inspired by [I Will Cover My Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10160435) by [Daiako (Achrya)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/pseuds/Daiako). 



> So, @achryathesecond and @lhugbereth had the nice idea for a FFXV Yakuza AU and I jumped right in there and had some fun coming up with stuff and… yeah. They already started to actually write short things for it, so I’m just here on the side line throwing my ideas into the void. Maybe you’ll like them anyway. (Also, I took Lhugy's first idea as summary sentence, because it was so fitting. Sorry!)
> 
> I think @whumpbby was it who had the first idea for how Ignis and Noctis bonded and I sorta kept moving ideas for a possible background story around in my head, trying to developthat. I think that their age difference should be a bit expanded for this to work, so in my head Ignis is about eight to nine years older than Noct. 
> 
> Not beta read.

 

The first time Noctis notices Ignis is when he is ten and Ignis snaps at him for not moving out of his way in his family home. Granted, they are a big family and there are lots of (much) older brothers and sisters, but _his_ father is still head of the family and Noctis is his only son by blood.

Never had one of them denied Noctis anything he wanted or even dared to scold him - at least until now. He grows hot with anger, a blush on his face, and looks at the guy furiously, only to be ignored and left alone in the hall. Shame burns along his spine.

He immediately hates him.

Ignis however couldn’t care less that this is _Oyabun_ Regis’ son. He’s a right brat, he’s heard it from many of the family members already, a seemingly shy boy, pretty as well with his fair skin and dark blue eyes, but far too aware of who his father is. Ignis has heard that he treats the majority of family members as if they were beneath him, not even talking to most of them, and he’s not going to have that. He has worked far too hard in his young life to get where he is now, climbing the family’s ranks quickly by spreading terror not only the among other clans, but most members of his own as well.

He couldn’t care less, the _Oyabun_ ’s trust is all that matters to him, so when the brat is one day walking the halls of the manor like he _owns_ the place, not showing an ounce of respect for Ignis, he snaps and watches with delight how the small boy jumps out of his way, wide-eyed and red-faced.

Imagine Ignis’ surprise when he keeps stumbling over Noctis, who _keeps_ sending him diryt looks and getting in his way - but Ignis has to admit that he’s a tiny bit amused by the boy’s lonely vendetta against him and pays due respect to the fact that the brat isn’t running to his father to demand Ignis be removed from the house, but instead at least tries to take care of the matter himself.

Meanwhile, Noctis is going insane. The prick with the spectacles is around the house more and more often and apparently his father _likes_ him or something, because he keeps praising his good work while the rest of the family seems absolutely terrified of him.

‘Sissies, all of them’ he thinks, but knows better than to say that one out loud, especially where his parents could hear. He keeps avoiding the other clan members more than ever, having lost the little respect he had for them because of the way they hush in awe and fear about the specs guy - Noctis doesn’t want their coddling and fawning when they are apparently so easy to impress.

Regis and his dear wife are more than amused by Noctis’ sulking, as well as positively surprised. When Noctis had been younger he’d had loads of fun leading the clan members on, getting exactly what he wanted and when he wanted, often to his parents dismay, but Regis was proud nonetheless. Sneaky and clever, that’s how he likes his boy, though he knows they’d already spoilt him rotten.

However, in recent years Noctis hadn’t shown too much interest in the family business, avoiding the majority of people in the house, often going as far as pretending they weren’t even present. “He is bored,” had his wife said on more than one occasion. “He’d had his fun with them, but a little boy needs more than grown men in suits to keep himself occupied in the long run. He needs friends around his age.”

It was not what Regis had wanted to hear. With Noctis being the sole heir to their house, they needed to be careful who to trust and where to take him, especially as the relationships with other clans continued to be tense and, thought not outright hostile, not amicable either. He didn’t want to bring peasants into the house, either, because those were easy targets as well and the last thing he wanted was for his son to strike up a friendship only to have that friend harmed or killed due to rivaly with other clans.

His wife had mingled however, contacting her old friend Sylva, head of the Nox-Fleuret family, to set their children up. Noct turned out to be immediately fond of Lunafreya, who was just a little older than him, and absolutely smitten by her two dogs - Ravus had been another story, but you can’t have everything. Regis was still satisfied with the outcome nonetheless, given the circumstances.

Right now though, with the rising number of territorial fights, Regis is quite content that Noctis is apparently interested enough in his new man, Ignis, to not demand to meet his little friend anytime soon. Nox-Fleuret mostly stay out of trouble, taking care of their own business, but he doesn’t want to take any unnessecary risks.

In the end, it is an unexpected attack that shatters Regis. On their way home from school, the car in which Noctis sits with his mother and one of Lucis’ clan members in the drivers seat is involved in a car crash. When his people arrive at the scene, it is obvious that it hasn’t been an accident - the streets are far too calm and open for someone to simply oversee a car here.

There is no clue though as to who is responsible for the attack, the involved car empty and their own driver dead. Regis suppresses a sob as his men pull out his dead wife from the wreck and urges them to wait for the ambulance upon seeing that Noctis still breathes. He calls Ignis to grab some men and sends him out to find whoever is responsible.

Noct stays in a coma for several weeks, his spine so severly injured that the doctors tell Regis he has to be prepared for Noctis probably not being able to ever walk again - _should_ he wake up at all.

Cor and Clarus take turns getting Regis a home to take care of himself and make sure that someone is with Noctis at all times. Ignis returns bitter to the manor, having found too little information on the incident to present anything satisfying to the _Oyabun_ , who is too out of it anyway to register that Ignis failed his task.

When Noctis wakes up and learns of his mother’s death, he lays in his bed and looks at the ceiling. It takes days before he utters a word and the only person he’s speaking to for weeks is his father. He outright ignores anyone else in the room, pretending the nurses aren’t there when they change his bandages and not eating his food unless he’s left alone. 

He asks his father why people attacked him and his mother, and Regis realizes that he hasn’t taken proper care of his clan’s business for weeks now, and cannot remember a word Ignis has said to him about the attack at all. As soon as Noctis is stabile enough, he is taken home and Regis lets his men set up rooms for Noctis long-term recovery.

He has a long talk with Ignis, being frustrated and angry about the menial outcome. He carries well chosen information over to Noctis, trying to explain the situation without causing too much additional damage and promises that they are still trying their best to find the people who are responsible for the whole situation.

Noctis behaviour with the clan’s men is worse than ever. They keep turns taking care of him, bringing him food, changing his stabilizing bandages and trying to get him to do the exercises the hospital advised him to do in order for a good recovery, but he still ignores most of them, doesn’t eat his food and only leaves his bed for the toilet.

Until one day it’s Ignis turn. He stands in the open door to Noctis room with a tray full of different dishes, looking at the black haired boy looking sickly on the white linen. Noctis stares back, heat in his eyes for the first time since the accident upon seeing Ignis. _What do you want_ , he seems to say.

Ignis swallows down the bitterness still lingering in him upon his failed task and slowly puts down the dish tray on the bed over Noctis lap.

The boy gances at the food and then stares out of the window.

“Eat.” Ignis orders. The boy looks too thin and too tired. He rearranges the dishes on the tray, pushing some steamed vegetables on brown rice and some miso soup to the front.

Noctis stares at him again, then at the food in front of him. He makes a point of holding his head high and staring at the wall opposite from his bed.

Ignis lingers, standing there like an idiot, before he turns around and walks a few steps. Noctis can taste his victory on his tongue and then falters when Ignis returns with a chair. He puts it down where he stood and sits. Waits.

The food slowly turns cold under Ignis’ gaze, while he waits for the boy to start eating. He is determined to sit here for hours if he must, no willing to fail yet another duty the _Oyabun_ has put upon him.

Noctis breathing grows erratic with anger. He’s short of flipping the whole tray off his lap when Ignis lowers his head, dark gaze still on him.

“Do you want me to feed it to you, Highness?”, he growls with a mocking undertone.

Noctis head snaps to meet his eyes and he swallows. From everyone else, this would be nothing but an empty threat. But this was the specs guy. Noctis somehow doesn’t doubt for a second that he would shove the now cold food down his throat if he didn’t start eating.

Again, rage makes his ears and cheeks grow hot, but he slowly takes the spoon from the tray and dips it into the soup. It’s cold and disgusting by now, but he realizes he’s actually hungry after the first few sips, so he keeps eating.

He picks most of the vegetables out of the rice, surprised that specs isn’t scolding him again, and finally eats a few pieces of meat as well. His stomach starts to ache soon enough, being overwhelmed at the unusual amount of food he forces down his throat under the watchful eye of the jerk, and he puts his cutlery down.

He half expects to be snapped at again because he hasn’t finished.

He does, not at all, expect Ignis to stand up with an approving nod and tell him pleased, “Well done.”

He grows hot again, for entirely different reasons this time, and realizes finally, while he watches specs leave his room with the tray of half-eaten food, that it goes both ways.

This guy dared to scold him, to call him out and deny him things, something no one in this family would ever dare to do. But they would also never dare to praise him, actually praise him, because that would mean they’d have to actually take him seriously. A child. Noctis might be young but he isn’t stupid, and he knows that the compliments he usually gets from the clan members are empty gestures, hollow words to trick him into liking them. They think it's so easy to deceive him.

This, however, had been actual, real praise. There was no one here except Ignis and him, and Ignis so far hadn’t cared to be nothing but brutally honest with Noctis about how he felt about him.

This, Noctis can take seriously.

And he is pleased. For the first time since he had woken up from his coma, he doesn’t feel like shit. The praise had felt good. It still feels good. He wants more.

He makes a point of being even more terrible to the men who come to take care of him. By now most of them are in a bad mood already when they know they are on Noctis-duty today, and none of then stays to wait for him to eat. He only eats a little, mostly ignoring the proper dishes and picking on the desserts, until his father sits down next to him.

“Why aren’t you eating?” He’s concerned and, for a moment, Noctis feels guitly for making him sad.

“I am.” He stays stubbornly, not looking up.

“My men tell me different stories. They say you barely touch the food they bring you. What is wrong with it?”

“I’m eating. Ask Ignis.”

Regis eyebrows shoot up. That’s new. “Ignis?” he asks.

Noctis nods. “He saw it. I’m eating.”

Regis is quiet. He leaves Noctis after giving him a kiss on the forehead (which Noctis totally did not lean into) and comes back an hours later with a tray in his hand to have lunch with his son.

The next day, Ignis delivers the food. He puts the tray down on Noctis lap, grabs a chair and is prepared to sit here for an hour at least. Noctis watches him sit down and grabs a spoon to start on his soup.

Ignis is startled. He watches, in turn, how Noctis eats his soup, some of the fish on rice and puts all his vegetables to the side.

“You need vitamins. Eat the carrots.” Ignis says.

Noctis stares at him again and seems to contemplate. He moves the veg around again to finally pick up the tiniest carrot he can find and puts it in his mouth. He grimaces at the taste.

Ignis suppresses a laugh. He had expected that the boy was being difficult on purpose again.

“You don’t like them?”

Noctis shakes his head.

“What _do_ you like, then?”

“Fruits.” Comes the tiny voice. Ignis thinks that it’s the first time he’s heard the boy speak. He nods.

The next day, Ignis comes again. There’s an additional bowl on the tray with deep red strawberries. Noctis eats them first.

There’s still vegetables on the rice, and again, Noctis puts them to the side. It’s green bell pepper today, and tomatoes.

“What a waste.” Says Ignis.

There is a short silence in which Noctis chews the rice and some sweetcorn that is mixed in it. He swallows. “Do you want to eat them?”

Again, Ignis is surprised, also by his own, immediate decision. “Yes.” He doesn’t like food going to waste. “Thank you.”

Noctis glows.

To say that the clan members of the Caelum family are taken aback by the fact that Ignis Scientia, the Wolf of Lucius, suddelny takes the majority of the Noctis-duty, is an understatement. The Glaives are happy that they don’t have to deal with him anymore, and deeply uncomfortable at the same time that Regis seems okay to leave his boy with that lunatic.

By the time Noctis is finally well-fed and strong enough to leave his bed and start exercising, Ignis and he regularly share his lunch. Ignis pays precise attention to keeping his usual bloody daily business seperate from his Noctis-time.

He has grown to respect the boy and his effort in being civil with Ignis, especially after his heavy injury and the loss of his mother at such a young age. Moreover, and that is his reason for being so precise about it, quite likes the fact that Noctis seems unfazed about his terrifying reputation. Ignis still enjoys that a lot of the clans members flinch when he as much as looks in their general direction, but he admits to himself that it is nice for a chance to have someone look at him without knowing what he’s up to once he leaves the manor to do his job. That, and he is curious how Noctis’ and his relationship will develop. The boy is clever. Ignis can see the _Oyabun_ in him and is quite sure by now that, with some help and nudges in the right direction, the child will grow into a strong, honourable leader.

 _If_ he’ll recover completely. Ignis tries not to flinch when he’s coming in one day early, while Noctis is still engaged in his exercises, only to see him tremble and fall, his legs too weak to support his body.

He puts the tray down next to the bed and hurries over to where the boy is still lying flat on his face to pick him up. Noctis hides his face from him, but Ignis can see the tight line to his mouth and the wetness in his eyes.

“Let’s eat, your Highness.” He puts his arms around the small body and carries him over to sit on the bed, while the nurse who comes three times a week now to train with Noctis slides silently out of the room. Noctis wipes his face with his hands and Ignis spots a small smile, pleased that the mock-nickname he has given him is at least able to pull a positive reaction from Noct.

They eat, Noctis devouring the pear first before he starts with his soup, and Ignis picking out all the vegetables from the meal he knows for a fact the boy won’t touch.

Noctis is growing desperate with his rehab. Ignis walks in on him several times failing even simple tasks and seemingly making slow to no progress and he hates it being seen so weak.

He hates seeing his father being upset at the prospect of his only child being a cripple for the rest of his life. Regis tries not to show, but Noctis can read him nonetheless. He still cannot walk by himself without being supported and Regis eyes are furrowed whenever he watches him trying.

He’s being terrible again, ignoring the nurse’s advice, not doing the simple exercises he can do alone when he’s lying in bed. What for? He has been trying for months now, and he’s tired.

Ignis tells him he should be proud of what he has achieved so far, given that no one was sure he’d even wake up again right after the car crash. Noctis fails to see any good with that. Ignis tells him that he should not expect any wonders, considering his condition, but that he should keep trying. He fails to see the point in that, too.

His father sends him off to Tenebrae territory. It’s sudden, one day he sits in his bed, having lunch with Ignis, the next he’s in a heavily-guarded car on his way to the Nox-Fleuret family. His father tells him on the way that they have excellent doctors and recovery programs, that Sylva had offered to take care of Noctis, and that he thinks having a change in environment will do Noctis good.

He doubts it’s, but at least he can see Luna and her dogs again. He feels a bit guilty, having forgotten about her. Then he remembers that the last time he was in Tenebrae, it was with his mother at his side, and he has to try very hard not to cry.

He is gone for months.

Ignis tries to ignore how he misses the quiet boy, and indulges himself in work and ignoring Gladiolus Amicitia, who apparently is going to train Noctis in all sorts of combat skills once the boy returns. ‘Quite ambitious of the _Oyabun_ ’, he thinks.

Amicitia knows of his reputation and had still come to him, daring to _tease_ Ignis about his apparently obvious affection for the boy. “I’ve seen how you treated him,” he’d had the nerve to grin. “Pretty cute.”

Ignis had growled. Didn’t work.

When Noctis comes finally back, he’s excited. He chatters all the way back in the again heavily-guarded car with Regnis, who is getting dizzy because Noctis had never talked so much at a time, telling him all sorts of stories about Luna and her dogs, Sylva, the gardens of their mansion and this one delicious Memory Lane Pastry he swore he could still taste on his tongue. Regis is relieved to see his son so lively. 

When Noctis finally leans back, done for now with the talking, Regis clears his throat. “You are going to take lessons with Gladiolus.”

Noctis has to think for a moment, before he remembers him as the son of one of the Glaives, Clarus. “What for?” He asks.

“Combat. I know you are very young for that, but I want you to feel confident on your own. I want you to be able to defend yourself.”

Noctis nods slowly. In case someone attacks him again - for whatever reason.

“You are also going to get someone to watch over you while you are still in training. You ca-”

“Ignis.”

Regis blinks in surprise.

“I want Ignis.” Noctis repeats, wearing a hard expression.

A smug smile slowly blooms on Regis’ face. Scientia, with his terrifying reputation, a stupendous set of skills and his loyalty to the Caelum clan.

“Ignis, then. A good choice.” He reclines into his seat, some of the tenseness falling off of his shoulders.

They arrive back home in the late afternoon. A vast array of clan members are waiting orderly outside the manor to welcome the Young Master after his long absence. Noctis feels his heart in his throat when he sees Ignis standing in the front row, close to a huge guy. Amicitia.

His door is opened for him and then his father is at his side, holding his hand, supporting him on his first steps. “Walk tall, my son.” He had said in the car, just before they had come to a stop.

Noctis holds his head high, slowly walking with his father until they are halfway between the now empty car and the men waiting silently. They stop, Noctis steeling himself by taking a deep breath.

“I am home.” He exclaims loudly, voice strong.

“Welcome home, Young Master.” The men reply in unison, echo resounding in the courtyard of the manor.

Regis looks proud when he releases his hand.

Noctis looks and finds Ignis’s gaze between the men, and keeps eye contact as he starts to walk. By himself. 

Even with the distance between them he can see how Ignis’ eyes widen in surprise and a small, pleased smile stretches the thin lips.

Noctis feels hot all over and walks proudly next to his father through the rows of family members, ready to enter his home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.  
> (And yep, I deceived you! There is no actual Ignoct _yet_ , this was just the build up)
> 
> Let me know what you think.


End file.
